Essay is hole-in-one

Thursday

May 10, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 10, 2007 at 10:17 AM

The nation is often captured by sports stories of “Cinderella” teams or individuals that begin as underdogs and go farther than anyone ever thought they would. Kevin Barber, a Cohasset High School senior, encapsulates one such story in an essay that recently won the Boston Globe’s Will McDonough Writing Contest award.

Barber, an avid golfer himself, recalled a story of professional golfer Jason Gore from the 2005 US Open. His essay, “The Unlikely Story of Jason Gore,” follows a golfer, Jason Gore, a relative unknown previous to the tournament, who was touted as the “everyman” of the tour after two promising 18-hole rounds.

“He hadn’t had much success” up to his point in his career Barber says, “but during this tournament he started playing well and at one point he held the lead.”

Gore ended up in the final pairing with defending US champion Retief Goosen on the last day of the tournament held in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Unfortunately, that last day Gore’s game was off and he shot an 84 and lost the tournament.

“It’s a Cinderella story, I found the story redeeming but tragic in a way,” says Barber. What makes the story even more interesting, as Barber points out in his essay, is Gore did not disappear after this shining moment, like so many Cinderella characters in sports. He proved himself to have enduring talent when he won his first PGA tournament the following year (the 84 Lumber Classic).

Nancy White

The nation is often captured by sports stories of “Cinderella” teams or individuals that begin as underdogs and go farther than anyone ever thought they would. Kevin Barber, a Cohasset High School senior, encapsulates one such story in an essay that recently won the Boston Globe’s Will McDonough Writing Contest award.

Barber, an avid golfer himself, recalled a story of professional golfer Jason Gore from the 2005 US Open. His essay, “The Unlikely Story of Jason Gore,” follows a golfer, Jason Gore, a relative unknown previous to the tournament, who was touted as the “everyman” of the tour after two promising 18-hole rounds.

“He hadn’t had much success” up to his point in his career Barber says, “but during this tournament he started playing well and at one point he held the lead.”

Gore ended up in the final pairing with defending US champion Retief Goosen on the last day of the tournament held in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Unfortunately, that last day Gore’s game was off and he shot an 84 and lost the tournament.

“It’s a Cinderella story, I found the story redeeming but tragic in a way,” says Barber. What makes the story even more interesting, as Barber points out in his essay, is Gore did not disappear after this shining moment, like so many Cinderella characters in sports. He proved himself to have enduring talent when he won his first PGA tournament the following year (the 84 Lumber Classic).

“In 2007, it is evident that Jason Gore, the unlikely hero of the ordinary golf fan, did what most Cinderella stories are so unlikely to do: he transformed himself from a downtrodden one-hit wonder into the champion he had always dreamed of being,” Barber writes at the conclusion of this winning essay.

Barber, who was originally hesitant to do the assignment, recalled the premise of the story from memory but did additional research on the scores and some interesting events leading up to the tournament. Barber was able to find out that Gore’s golf clubs and clothes were stolen in the week prior to the 2005 US Open.

“I think adding those little details gave color to the story,” explains Barber.

Barber found out that he had won the Will McDonough Writing Contest when his English teacher, Christine Berman, told him during lunch.

“I was pleasantly surprised when I found out, I actually had forgotten about the contest,” says Barber. Berman had all her students for the last two years submit an essay to the writing contest, sponsored jointly by the Boston Globe and Bank of America. More than 2,000 entries from across New England were submitted from students in grades 4 to 12 and two winners from each grade were selected. The contest had some guidelines and suggestions for themes including “good sports/bad sports,” “what makes a team great” and the theme Barber chose, “character counts.”

“I was reluctant to do a sports writing essay because it didn’t really interest me,” says Barber. But since Mrs. Berman made it a requirement for her AP English and Journalism classes, he didn’t have much choice. Barber and his class sat down and wrote the essay in one 90-minute class period.

“[Barber] is one of the best writers I have taught in 34 years,” says Berman of the Georgetown-bound senior.

As his prize, Barber attended an award ceremony at the TD Banknorth Garden. He says the highlight was meeting Sean McDonough, television sportscaster and son of the late Will McDonough. In addition to a night at the Garden, Barber received a plaque with a mock front page of the Globe proclaiming him the winner of the contest. His essay will be on display in The Sports Museum’s Will McDonough exhibit located inside the TD Banknorth Garden.

Will McDonough, a Boston Globe columnist of 44 years, was the Globe’s only sports-writer to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He passed away in January 2003. McDonough was a mentor to young writers and for this reason, The Sports Museum and his colleagues from the Globe dedicated this contest in his memory.

Barber hopes to pursue writing as a focus in his college studies as well as in his career but what form his talent and interest will take is still to be determined.

“Writing is one of my strengths, so I’ll probably focus on that,” he thinks that majoring in English is a possibility. “In creative writing you need to have confidence in your writing. When you do it’s the most enjoyable type [of writing] that you can do, but probably the most difficult.”

Once he got into writing the essay, Barber enjoyed the assignment because it had “an element of creativity,” more so at least than an analytical essay on literature, he says.

Barber is a member of the high school golf team, debate team, math team, National Honor Society and a writer for the school newspaper, The Spinnaker. When he’s not busy with his schoolwork and extra-curricular activities, Barber is often found on the golf course.